In 1963, while holding a lecturing post in English literature at Queen Mary, University of London, Simon Gray began his writing career as a novelist — an early step in a body of work that would eventually span multiple forms and decades.

Born on 21 October 1936 in Hayling Island, Gray was educated at Westminster School, Dalhousie University, and Trinity College before establishing himself in academic life. He lectured at Queen Mary for twenty years, during which time he developed his career as a writer in parallel with his teaching. Over the course of his life he published five novels and wrote forty original stage plays, in addition to producing screen adaptations of his own work and the work of others for stage, film, and television. Among his stage plays, Butley stands as a notable work. Gray was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and received the honour of Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

Gray died in London in August 2008, having sustained a writing life that crossed from fiction into drama and screenwriting across more than four decades. His appointment as Commander of the Order of the British Empire and his fellowship of the Royal Society of Literature mark the formal recognition his work received during his lifetime.